Lot 3224 - Z41 Impressionist & Modern Art - Friday, 02. December 2016, 02.00 PM
MAURICE UTRILLO
(Paris 1883–1955 Dax)
Rue au Pré-Saint-Gervais. Circa 1921.
Oil on board.
Signed lower right: Maurice Utrillo V.
45 x 59 cm.
The authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the Comité Utrillo, Paris.
Provenance:
- Private collection, Paris.
- Sotheby's New York, 12 November 1988, lot 369.
- Kohn Bourg-en-Bresse, 13 June 1990, lot 159.
- Private collection, Geneva.
Literature: Pétridès, Paul: L'oeuvre complet de Maurice Utrillo, Paris 1962, vol. II, no. 927 (with ill.).
The street scenes of Paris, urban canyons, streets of houses, alleyways and squares are the central themes of the self-taught Maurice Utrillo, born in 1883 in Paris as the son of the painter Suzanne Valladon. With an unknown father, Maurice received the name of the Spanish art critic Miguel Utrillo, who was officially appointed stepfather. As a young man, Utrillo first used painting as therapy against alcoholism until he discovered his great talent and passion therein. With broad brush strokes and thick application of paint, he captured the angular seclusion of the Parisian suburbs on the canvas. In order to achieve a higher degree of realism in his paintings, Maurice Utrillo frequently mixed sand and plaster into his paint. The red brick walls, coloured houses, and dominant linear features lend his works a strong formal rigour.
Utrillo succeeded in capturing his city with virtuosity, perhaps not only due to his artistic talent, but also because he was a child of Montmartre. Many other important artists first moved to Paris as adults. Utrillo, on the other hand, had already spent his youth amongst the urban canyons, expressing them as geometrically structured images. The infamous establishments, the "variety show" amongst the bourgeois residential houses and small wooden shacks, are his world.
As seen in the present work, he liked to enliven his street scenes by painting pedestrians. Important cornerstones in his life were the women: his grandmother, with whom he grew up, his wife Lucie, after whom he named his last residence, and probably the most important woman, his mother. The painter's deep attachment to his mother is expressed in his signature, "Maurice Utrillo V.", adding a "V." to his own name to clarify his affiliation with his mother.
CHF 60 000 / 100 000 | (€ 61 860 / 103 090)
Sold for CHF 142 700 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.